Stars Align
by celticmoonbeams
Summary: While Killian dreads his fear of being abandoned by Emma and the others after the search for Henry is over, he learns a couple of things about Emma during a strategy meeting on board the Jolly Roger. Having more questions, Killian and Emma have a little heart to heart that night.
1. Chapter 1

I had always loved the gently rolling of a ship out on the vast open sea. It normally soothed and calmed me because it told me I was home. At least what I had called home for over three hundred years since my father left me in the middle of the night on board a ship. Now here I stood leaning against a shroud in the stern on the starboard side looking out over the blue green water of the bay. Sea gulls squalling overhead provided my only physical companions as questions and doubts played through my mind.

I had known why I came back to Emma Swan and that tiny, seaside town she called home. I hadn't berated myself for the choice I made nor had it annoyed or confused me. She had offered the one thing I had wanted my entire life but had always alluded me. She had also been the only person in over three hundred years with whom I had found myself wanting to fulfill that wish in spite of myself. It was an offer I found myself unable to refuse in the end. I returned to her after having had begun to leave with the bean I had made her think I gave her in that little black satchel I handed over to her in that little strange, bright tavern. She told me then that she thought I only cared about myself. I had for centuries after too many attempts to allow others close had ended with nothing but pain, rejection and betrayal including Emma herself. Yet, I wanted so badly what she offered that I had taken the risk once more.

That led me to where I found myself that day staring over the mid-morning bay alone while the others now on my ship were below deck after they ushered me away. The bloody Crocodile refused to reveal any information he might have known while I was in attendance. The Prince sharply turned towards me and told me to go above deck; his voice dripping with hostility. I schooled my face into indifference as I turned from the scene in the barracks. The Crocodile who wore a smug grin as he stared coldly into my eyes. I barely caught the look on Emma's face as I quickly spun on my heel and hastily left. She had cast me a grimace but I had already turn the corner before I could have seen anything else.

What I had feared the most when I made my choice to come back had begun to come to pass. They had already begun to exclude me from whatever we were all becoming and doing together. They were already pushing me out. I drew in a shaky breath as I closed my eyes from the burning wetness I felt developing in them and bowed my head trying to stop it. I had lost track of how much time had past before I heard heavy footsteps approaching from below deck jerking me from my thoughts.

"Asshole son of a bitch," Emma fumed as I turned and caught sight of her slender frame coming towards me. I felt my eyes widen as she side stepped or stepped over the various lines that ran across the deck.

"Swan? What are you doing up here?" I asked as loudly as I could manage.

"They threw me out of the barracks," she deadpanned. I felt my eyebrows raise and my mouth fall open.

"Why?"

"I threatened to punch Gold in the face." she explained with a shrug of her slender shoulders. I stared at her dumbfounded for a long moment. "What? It's the least he deserves. He's been nothing but a total ass this whole time. It's not like I haven't told I was going to do that before. One of these days there's won't be anything that will stop me from actually doing it."

She quickly turned her head away from me to look out over the large bay. The sunlight danced off of the water's ripping surface and reflected the bright rays in multiple directions. The action barred me from studying her eyes and granted only her profile to my gaze. I found myself unable to say anything while I tried to discern the real reason as to why she challenged the Crocodile. Just as it had been in that little tavern, she was hiding her true motivation behind her actions but that time she clearly hadn't wanted me to know what they were. I would've pushed the matter if it hadn't been for the untimely arrival of the others from below.

The Prince led the way towards us. Severe tension had been clearly visible in his frame and a deep scowl etched onto his face; the skin having gone red. Every few seconds, he looked over his shoulder and gave the Crocodile a glare before he returned his focus forward as he shook his head slightly. Snow and Regina had been keeping up with the Prince's determined, quick pace with the Prince and had been only a step or two behind him. The Crocodile brought up the rear; purposely strolling slowly forward. He looked at me with a soft half grin on his face and a malevolent gleam in his eyes as he closed the remaining distance to join the rest of us.

"So, now that everyone's ready and...cooperative," the Prince said as he threw a sharp look at the Crocodile who only stood in the place he had chosen beside the starboard side of the wheel with a neutral expression on his face, "we can begin this meeting. Since Hook has been here before, he knows the realm better than any of the rest of us. We've already scouted the coast line of the closest island and further inland but no sign of Henry or Greg and Tamara."

"Well, our current approach of random and frantic searching has been working about as well as looking for a needle in a haystack. It's been over a month and still nothing. Switching tactics to something that relays less on pure dumb luck might be the best course of action," I responded with a deep, long sigh.

"And, you had this opinion but didn't say anything until now?" the Prince fired back, his jaw clenching.

"You never asked."

"I assumed I didn't have to."

"Assuming is never a good thing."

"Hook," Emma called out firmly while holding her hand up towards her father halting the comeback he had been about to say. "When you're a part of something, you don't have to wait for someone to ask. You can just come right out with it. I know this is a new thing for you. Been there myself not too long ago. Just so you know, it's actually expected of you when you are accepted as part of a group." She cast a glance at her father whose demeanor had changed with what Emma had spoken. "You're apart of us now. You're one of us. So tell us what you have been thinking all this time."

It took me a long moment to find my voice after hearing those words from her. All I could do was stare at her in silence and wonder. I had to shake my head and clear my throat before I managed to regain my composure.

"Let's start with what should be the obvious. Magic beans work by having the land you wish to travel to in your thoughts when you throw and create the portal. That means they intended to come here. The real question we should be asking is why here of all the lands they could have gone. Especially one with magic. Their 'sacred' mission was to get rid of magic. Why bring the lad to a land that had it if they had that mission? If we can figure that out, it'll help us narrow down the locations they may have taken the lad instead what we have doing."

"They know someone here," the Crocodile announced. His steady, hard eyes locked with mine once again as he leaned slightly forward on his cane. "You know as well as I do who that is."

"Aye," I responded through gritted teeth. "I wonder why those tossers or, more accurately, that demon they work for, want him."

"And here we thought, after you spent so much time here trying to figure out a way to kill me, you would know all about that as well as...," he replied as he graciously gestured towards my hook with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Clearly your great appreciation of metal goes beyond daggers with great magical power that result in abandoning sons and doing so after cowardly not telling them the truth about their mother having left their father," I retorted with a tight lipped smile. "Makes a lad reject any offer of family and home and become one of them."

"This ship is a wonderful place to give a child comfort, security and stability," the Crocodile commented as he limped towards me. He had let his chin drop so as to carefully watch his progression. He stopped when he stood less than fifteen centimeters away from where I stood and raised his chin to lock his hard, cold eyes with mine. "A heart could truly be free and call it home. So free it can blow in the wind alongside its sails. Maybe I can offer to help you have it happen again. Even for yourself."

I could feel the heat blazing across the skin of my face and the veins beginning to pop in my temples. I felt my short fingernails cut into the palm of my trembling, tightfisted hand and my vision had begun to turn red. The retort was on my tongue as I felt my arm bend and raise. The action died just as it began when Emma quickly squeezed in the small space between us. She faced the Crocodile with her back flushed against my chest and her long, blonde hair so close I could smell the faint scent of rose and orchid within its strains.

The heat speeding across my skin changed instantly from one that made me view red in my eyesight and gave me a boiling in my veins to the blood rushing and my vision beginning to swim. Dryness spread through my mouth as I inhaled more and more of the tantalizing scent drifting from the tendrils billowing in the cool, light breeze coming in off the water of the bay. Large, fast gulps of air filled my lungs trying to fill my lungs with the air it had seemed to need in that moment yet I couldn't keep pace with how quickly and how much my lungs wanted. Tautness filled my limbs and tightness began to stretch my black leather trousers. My eyes quickly darted to where the Prince and Emma's mother stood on watchful, ready guard side by side. Their dagger like attention had been fully focused on the Crocodile much to my everlasting relief. I silently offered gratitude to any and every type of god ever known for the fact that my strong reaction to their daughter went unnoticed by them.

"Whoa! No need to go there. Let's skip the whole ripping hearts out thing, alright? And, just to make sure it won't work if you did decide to actually try it, I think I'll stand right here," Emma stated, cold, hard steel in her voice. My eyes popped open and I stumbled slightly as I took a step back from her. My heart had begun to race out of my chest when my mind registered both her words themselves and their meaning. "Why don't you take a couple of steps back and tell us what you know? You said something about someone we all should be afraid of as we were leaving Storybrooke. How about you tell us everything without the vagueness and double meanings? It would be a refreshing change for once."

The Crocodile hobbled back a few steps as she had asked of him. I moved back until I was almost leaning against the stern bulwark and slid over to the left as Emma angled her body where she could see both of us while still mostly facing him. She leaned the majority of her weight on one leg and crossed her slender arms over her chest.

"I sense a proposal coming," he remarked as an amused smile formed on his face.

"No. Been down that road once already. I have a very strong idea that it had been a trick. The squid ink on that scroll in your old cell in the Enchanted Forest. My name was written over and over on it with the ink. You got my name from my mom before the curse was cast," she stated, gesturing towards her mother. "You were standing behind me that first night I stayed in Storybrooke and overheard my name. That's when you got your memory back. From hearing my name. You then knew I didn't believe in the curse or in any of the fairy tale stuff at that time and you used it to get me to get into a deal with you because I just thought you were some creepy as hell pawnshop owner dealing in the adoption black market. You knew I wouldn't believe for a second you were really Rumpelstiltskin. Matter of fact, you knew I would think anyone who told me you were was crazy. You needed me to owe you a favor so I would have to help you with finding your son in that world since I grew up there and knew it."

It had taken me a long moment but our respective positions and the words Emma had said to seep into my awareness. A memory from long gone but not forgotten slammed into my mind like a speeding battering ram. The memory played over the scene that had been unfolding before me in vivid clarity.

_Milah pulled the bean from the black pouch holding it for safe keeping and held it up between her index finger and her thumb for her former husband's appraisal. He leaned forward as he gazed greedily at it before reaching up to take it from her grasp. She __pulled it away from him with a quick and fluid circle of her arm and tossed it towards me. I caught it in my left hand with ease as she returned __her focus back to him with a knowing grin upon her lips. _

_ "You asked to see it and now you have," I solemnly said to him as I held up the bean in my tight fist. He clearly had been behaving with unstable anger and it had made me both wary and afraid._

_ "Do we have a deal? Can we go our separate ways?" Milah asked _

_"__Do you mean do I forgive you?" her former husband replied as he stepped towards the bow. Milah looked over at me with stormy blue eyes and a __deep __frown creasing her beautiful face. She rolled her eyes as she moved in between him and me taking a stance that had her leaning most of her weight on one leg and a hand on the curve of hip as she angled her body slightly. The stance allowed her to keep most of her focus on him but she could easily see me. "Perhaps, perhaps."_

The haze of the memory evaporated and I found myself back to that moment. I shook my head gently to clear it the rest of the way locking my full focus on the Crocodile and Emma. Emma had made a deal with the bloody demon. I felt the blood in my veins boil once more at the mere thought of another woman I came to care for so deeply entangled with that monster. Doing so unknowingly had made the rapidly raising heat all the more worse. My fingers folded tightly making my nails bite into its palm.

"There must be a reason why you've chosen to protect the pirate from me twice now, Ms. Swan. First with finding my son. Now this. I'm just wondering how far you are willing to go to do so," he said while fiddling with the head of his cane.

My eyes widened at the Crocodile's words and I turned sharply to gaze at Emma. She maintained her stance in silence. The only movement she made was a narrowing of her beautiful blue green eyes and a defiant lift of her chin. Her lips fell into a tight, thin line as a deep red flush blossomed on her porcelain skin. Her jaw worked alerting those who had been watching her that she had been clenching her teeth as she stared the demon down.

My thoughts raced as I carefully observed the scene playing out before me. I had thought she had chosen to help him and chose him over me. Instead, she had gone to protect me from him. It was a thought that had never occurred to me given our history with one another. Once again, the unpleasant heat morphed into the warmth of something else entirely. Tingles raced across my skin and I felt the heat climb up my neck and spread across my face.

A tightness formed both in my chest and stretched across my trousers. My eyes darted to her father standing less than three meters away from me as I frantically tried to clamp it down. I had felt the Prince's fist against my jaw once before in their little abode in their land. I had no desire to feel it again. I had wondered where Emma got her adeptness with punching people when she had punched me by the lake. I received my answer when her father punched me those few weeks prior.

"Oh, cut the crap, you twisted imp!" Regina snapped, her dark chestnut eyes sharp and narrowed. The heels of her knee high boots clapped loud and sharp across the deck as she marched with single-minded determination until she stood close less than fifteen centimeters from the Crocodile. "Who the hell cares why she wants to protect him? I sure as hell don't. My son is out there possibly being handed over to the Lost Boys and Peter Pan! We know that's who you were referring to when you said we should all be scared. And, yes, we should be. We've heard about that little monster and the tales of what he can and will do to someone. If you know anything more, start talking because I damn well will not let my son be harmed by anyone and especially not Peter Pan. Get on with it!"

"The Piccaninny Tribe," I announced as loudly as I could manage. The sound of my voice had been vaguely hoarse even to my own ears. The fates appeared to take mercy on me and a cold breeze ran over the ship rustling lines, sails and the clothing upon everyone that was hanging loose and open enough to be caught by it. I cleared my throat in an attempt to play the card that presented itself and give the appearance that I might be catching a cold from the cool weather. "The Chieftain doesn't trust travelers to this land. But, he has no love for Peter more than he has the distrust of strangers. He has no greater wish than to rid the land of him. Both him and his people know the land better than even I. If we play our cards right, we might get him to help us."

"Where is the tribe?" Snow inquired softly making herself known for the first time.

"Northeast of Marooner's Rock. Just over there," I replied motioning to the left side of the bow towards the massive rock that loomed on the west of the island. The others peered at it for a long moment before returning their gazes to me.

"OK. Let's all rest tonight and we'll head there in the morning and start the journey to their village," the Prince said with a slow nod.

One by one, the others slowly disembarked back to below deck. Regina threw the Crocodile a malicious glare as she moved past him following their royal highnesses towards the barracks. The only indication he gave that he had been aware of her actions was a tight half grin before turning and following the queen. Emma kept to where she stood for several moments allowing the others to have gotten out of sight and hearing. She hesitantly looked at me and opened her mouth as if to say something but quickly closed it. She sharply cast her eyes down to her feet and hastily turned on her heel. She disappeared below deck leaving me alone with questions crowding my mind.


	2. Chapter 2

Stargazing had been a lifelong love since I had been a wee lad. They had been vital for navigation along side compasses and detailed maps. But it had never been the only reason I found the celestial displays far above head important. It provided soothing solace over the long centuries. I had stayed on deck after the contentious meeting hours earlier in an attempt to calm the tempest rampage through my mind.

The millions of brightly glowing orbs crowded the vast expanse of sky from horizon to horizon forming a dense web. Neverland's sky had always had the most beautiful stars belaying the immense darkness that had engulfed the land. I leaned my back against the wheel with my arms folded across my chest and my ankles crossed as I faced the stern gazing up at the heavens. I lost track of time as my eyes roamed over the brightly glowing specks as I began to see patterns emerging within them.

One pattern leapt out to me making my eyes widen and my mouth fall slightly open. The head and neck of a swan faced and curved towards the right meeting the point of a hook which faced and curved to the left. When the two points met, they formed the shape of a large heart. I stood there frozen for several minutes taking in the sight before me. I knew I was only seeing things. It hadn't been a true constellation that called the night sky its home. Yet no matter how much I had told myself that, I couldn't push the thought out of my mind. It had also brought to the forefront of my mind the two questions I found I needed to be answered the most.

I had already made it across the deck and to the bottom of the stairs leading down below deck before my mind caught up with the actions of my body. Before I could turn the corner down the long, narrow hallway towards the barracks where the others were bound have have been already asleep, a light caught my attention from the other end. The light came from the opposite end from the barracks; from my own cabin. I felt the knit of my eyebrows and the creasing of the corners of my mouth as I turned in the direction of the cabin.

The hard, oak door had been shut except for a sliver of a crack that allowed the light to shine through and reflect down the hall. I carefully approached it and slowly pushed it open with my hook. It softly creaked as it moved and revealed Emma sitting at the mahogany double-sided kneehole desk that was near the far right side wall. She had her crossed ankle feet propped up on the top of the desk as she lazily reclined in the matching chair beside it with a book open in her hands. Her long, blonde hair flowed over and down the back of the chair as she thumbed through the old book's delicate pages.

"A little WD-40 will take care of that," she announced without looking up.

"I don't know what WD-40 is, Swan," I softly replied as I stepped the rest of the way into the room. My brow creased as I concentrated on closing the door. She was being intentionally irrelevant. I began to wonder when the woman would ever get it through that beautiful head of hers that she was an open book to me.

"It's a lubricant for metal joints and hinges. Spray it on the door hinges there and that creaking will stop. It saves someone from having to replace the hinges because the metal kept grinding against metal and destroying it," she explained as she turned another page of the book then looked up at me.

I had felt the corner of my mouth beginning to curl up into a grin and the catch of air in my lungs and throat. It had taken everything I had in me to keep the grin from fully forming and to push the chuckle back down. She had always been endearing without any effort. I lowered my gaze from her enchanting blue green eyes and walked over to the wall in front of where she sat. I began fiddling with the point of my hook to provide myself something to focus on other than her.

"Despite how positively fascinating that is, Swan, I find myself not in the mood to discuss door hinges," I said, my voice keeping the soft tone it had taken only moments earlier.

"That's too bad. It would save you a lot of trouble when those hinges rust out completely and the door falls off."

"Why aren't you in the barracks?" I sighed heavily.

Silence sat heavily between us for several long moments. I kept focusing on my hook but could see her from the corner of my eye. Despite not having stood up or even having removed her feet from atop the desk, I knew the question had thrown her. Her back became a little more stiff and her shoulders had squared and tensed. Her flippancy had instantly evaporated. She only sat there with her eyes locked on me as she studied me. I had begun to think she wouldn't answer the question. My fingers picked at the point of my hook with renewed fervor as the minutes ticked by. Fluttering within my stomach dominated my awareness as my heart pounded in my chest and resonated in my ears. A lump had begun forming in my throat and I noticed my hand slightly trembling as it continued to fiddle with the hook.

"You know why I'm here," she finally murmured causing my head to snap up. Her head turned slightly to the side as she "Do you honestly think that you can read me but I can't do the same to you? I meant what I said in the diner. We understand each other. You're just as much of an open book to me as I am to you. I just didn't think it was a conversation for their ears," she explained gesturing towards the barracks. "Especially not Gold...or my parents."

"Too right, love," I muttered as I remembered her looking at me with hesitant eyes then slightly opening her mouth to say something before quickly closing it. Her actions had taken a new meaning with her words.

"You're wondering about the heart thing," she stated with a short, steely nod. "It's weird and I don't how or why. Cora..."

"Tried to take it by the portal at the lake," I interrupted with a wave of my hand. "I figured that much out already." Her brows furrowed and her head tilt as she studied me for a moment. "I'm a lot of things, love, but stupid or blind aren't among them. If it had been either Regina or the Crocodile or even Cora after that, your father would have known about it and he wouldn't have been able to keep it from showing. Your mother is the only one who would know about Cora trying next to the portal so it had to have been then. That's a good and very comforting thing. I do want to know more as to how that is but I gather those answers aren't forthcoming for the time being since no one really knows them. We can figure all that out as we go along. Besides, it's not what I was wondering about the most."

"Oh, that," she mouthed with wide eyes.

"Aye. Regina and her mother had said you left with the Crocodile."

"He collected on a deal I made with him just shortly after I first came to Storybrooke. I had just been told about the curse and the whole fairy tale thing. I didn't believe in it then. I was just trying to help a young mother keep her newborn baby and not let him take her away from her mother. So, I got him to trade deals. He let the girl's drop and she get to keep her baby in exchange for the deal with me where I owed him a favor. I meant what I said earlier. If someone would have told me he was really Rumpelstiltskin then, I would've thought they were crazy and not believed them. I think he had gotten his memory back that first night I stayed in Storybrooke when he overheard my name while I was getting a room at the inn in town. He knew I didn't believe and knew who I really was and played it to his advantage."

"That has nothing to do with what he said."

"He said about what?"

"You bloody well know," I snapped as my eyes darted and locked with hers. She was being deliberately obtuse and we both knew it.

"It was paying you back."

"Paying me back?" She couldn't have been serious. What could she have been paying me back for?

"We both know you threw the fight by the portal. You have a hook for a hand and have been sword fighting for how long? I had picked up a sword for the first time in my entire life roughly a week before that. Granted, I slayed a dragon with it somehow and don't ask me how I managed to do it because I don't even know but it was still my first time. Do you really think I'm that arrogant to think I would've beaten you if you hadn't been more interested in flirting with me than actually seriously fighting me? Do you honestly think I wasn't aware of how many times you could've killed me but chose not to? You threw that fight and we both damn well know it. It saved my life and allowed me to get back home to my son and the rest of my family. Even though I didn't and don't agree with what you did to Belle, I get why you did it. You don't deserve to be killed for it. Punched? Yes. Beaten? No. Killed? Hell, no. I may have told you that if I had to pick dead guy of the year, it'd be you but that didn't mean I wished for it to actually happen. Not if I could do anything to stop it."

I just stood there and studied her for a several long minutes. That was all it was? Paying back a favor she thought she owed me at the same time she was paying her debt to the Crocodile? It was a business transaction to her? I looked back down at my hook with a crease in my brow and swallowed hard. No, she had been running from what was between us. She had been making excuses. Bloody brilliant ones but excuses nonetheless. I gazed back up at her to find her head slightly bowed and her picking at her fingers. The way her eyes kept darting up at me every few seconds doubt to gauge my reaction. But try as she might to make it go unnoticed by me, I could she small glimpses a blue green telling on her.

"Aye, Swan. Thank you," I finally breathed. If she wasn't going to be willing then I wasn't going to force her. But, I also knew what she was really doing. She was testing me because of those damn trust and abandonment issues of hers. It wasn't going to play out like she had thought. She was the one who was going to be the one tested and I was going to make her bloody well work for it.

One of my mottoes rang through my thoughts at that moment. _"A man unwilling to fight for what he wants, deserves what he gets." _In most cases I would have naturally agreed to that. Not in that one. I never forced a woman to do anything in my entire life. I hadn't been about to start with Emma of all people. I had already chosen her when I came back with the bean. Now it was her turn to choose and do the fighting. I pushed myself off the wall and walked over to the door. As I opened it, I politely gestured for her to leave.

"What? That's it?" she demanded with raised eyebrows and widened eyes.

"What else is there? I got the answer I needed which I had been going down to the barracks to find you to get. I think that makes us done," I remarked in an even tone. I kept my expression neutral but couldn't stop the thought in my mind. _Your move, love. _

"You're kicking me out?! After I had just said all that?" She jumped out of the chair with impressive speed and hadn't stopped until she was less than fifteen centimeters away from me.

"It's late. We have an expedition in the morn to try to find your lad, remember?"

"Oh, no, you don't. You are not going to just let it drop like that. You don't let things just drop."

"What are you going on about? You were too right about what you said, lass."

"I'm 'lass' now?"

"Would you prefer me to call you something else?"

"You've either called me 'Swan,' 'Emma' or 'love' since the beanstalk. You only called me 'lass' right before we took out the giant," she replied with sharp, narrowed eyes. _Oh, I know._

"And you've only ever called me 'Hook' and you never came back for me," I retorted. I couldn't help myself. Suddenly, the words had begun to tumble out. "You told me that we understand one another. Doesn't look like it much right now. Of the two of us, you're not the one who should be testing on whether the other one will leave them if the opportunity presented itself. Nor are you the one who should be guarded about letting the other one in and knowing how they feel."

I winced as soon as the words left my mouth. What was it about this bloody woman that made me so damn honest with her? Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. We remained standing still and silent for a long moment with our eyes locked as we read one another. I dropped all pretense and let her see for herself what I had been trying to get across to her that whole time. Her eyes seemed to spark the second she comprehended what I really meant and the veil that had been over her own eyes fell away. I felt Emma's silky smooth palm slide gently across my own.

I couldn't help the uneven intake of breath I found myself taking and I looked down to our hands as her fingers slowly intertwined with my own. It was only a small fraction of the physical contact I craved from her but it had been enough for that tiny moment. It hadn't been nearly enough but I had decided to let her have control of it at least for that moment. She had slowly begun to close what little distance between us while I watched her gently tug on my wrist urging me to step away from the door. I granted her request and allowed her to walk me backwards further into the room.

"Too right, Killian. I can't expect you to keep fighting for me if I don't also fight for you," she said softly as I raised my eyes to her eyes and her left hand quietly closed the door once more.

I felt my mouth go dry at hearing my real name from her for the first time since we had met. She craned her head up and over the tiny distance between us and ghosted her lips over mine. It had been tentative and exploring. It hadn't lasted long like that until she applied more pressure and gave a true kiss. It was fleeting and teasing but it was long enough for my blood to sizzle in my veins until it had nearly came to a rolling boil.

Emboldened by need and desperate to feel her porcelain skin on mine, I pulled her black tank top up and slid his hand under the cotton to grasp her hip. The exposed flesh of her waist just above the top seam of her black skinny jeans was hot, silky smooth and so damn feminine it almost made my knees go weak. I gave into temptation I stepped towards sliding my palm around to her flat belly until it came to rest on the small of her back. I pulled her until she was the rest of the way flush against me letting her feel the full length of my body against hers. She let out a tiny gasp against our connected lips then traced my bottom lip asking permission to deepen the kiss.

She slid her hands beneath my black leather jacket and I pulled me inside by the collar of my shirt tugging my head down to hers the instant I parted my lips and allowed her entrance. A low groan escaped the back of my throat at the touch of her tongue against mine and I sank further into the kiss. She pushed the jacket of my shoulders and down my arms before hitting the floor with a soft thud. I greedily wanted more of her, all of her, right then in that very instant. I slid my hand up taking her tank top with it until I reached the back of her tiny corset then went higher.

She pulled away from me only long enough to cross her arms and finish discarding the shirt over her head. When she returned her lips to mine, the kiss was fever pitched. I felt my shirt fall open and pulled down my arms as our lips and tongues dueled for dominance. I impatiently pulled it off the rest of the way and flung it to somewhere unknown off to the side then renewed my exploration of her soft curves. I had felt like a man imprisoned in the coldest place one could imagine, freezing and hopelessly lost until she had found me under those bodies in that little village then tied my to a bloody tree. Everywhere she touched thawed by degrees then burst into flames.

"Bloody hell," I moaned into her open mouth as she gently guided me backwards through the dimly lit room towards some unknown destination. I began to try to unfasten that ridiculously tiny, sapphire blue corset of hers to no avail. "Emma," I growled through gritted teeth. "Help me get this bloody thing off in one piece or I'll slice it off."

A husky chuckle escaped from her softly parted lips and vibrated against my own at my frustration and she made no move to rid herself of the damn thing. She only continued to guide me back further into the room. I hadn't cared where she was taking me as long as it involved more of what we were doing; more of ___her_. The procession backwards came to a short, unexpected stop when the back of my legs bumped into something large. The momentum had still been enough to throw me off balance and I fell back on what I found out to be my mahogany four poster bed.

She placed one hand on the mattress beside my hip as her long fingers lightly skimmed up the skin of my belly. They traced around the lines defining my abs before dipping into my navel causing my breath to catch in my throat. My head fell back onto the soft mattress and my eyes drifted closed as a tremor fire ran through my body from her touch. As quickly as she had given the touch, she took it away making my head raise quickly from the mattress in question.

She had stepped back and had begun to take off her knee high black boots. One by one, she had let them drop to the floor off to the side before unbuttoning her jeans. A mischievous gleam lit her eyes as she shimmied out of them revealing the matching sapphire blue lower undergarment she wore. I felt my breathing quickly becoming labored as my mouth dropped open and my eyes widen at the glorious sight she presented. Her grin blossomed into a full blown smile as she reached behind her back and unfastened her little corset.

"This is actually one of my favorite sets. I don't want you ruining it by being a little too slice happy with that hook of yours," she quipped, letting the straps slide down her arms as she came back to me.

She freed herself completely of it while placing her knees, one by one, at my sides and began climbing up my body. She placed open mouthed kisses from the hem of my trousers to my navel on up to the chest of my chest over my heart as she straddled my hips. My hand buried itself into her hair as he went from one nipple, circling it with her tongue, to the other. A ragged groan escaped the back of my throat and I arched slightly into her attention. When she nipped one of my nipples, I jerked then easily pulled her up into my arms and tumble her to the bed beneath me.

"Minx," I growled before claiming her mouth is in fevered kiss.

Sliding down on the bed, I gently nipped and kissed her belly making her buck and writhe a bit as I got my revenge for her ministrations just minutes earlier. Emma moaned and gasped when I wrapped my lips around one distended nipple. Her blunt fingernails scraped across my scalp and down my back as I lavished attention on first one and then the other in turn before trailing a line of kisses up the length of her neck. Eventually her hands came to rest on the curve of my ass squeezing and pulling me firmly up into the apex of her thighs. Unable to stop myself, I ground my painfully hard length against her and felt the intense heat that greeted me.

That heat beckoned and my hand stopped pleasuring her breasts long enough to slide down her stomach until met that heat as well. She moaned and arched her hips in order to guide me where to touch. The provocative movement made me have to squeeze my eyes shut and take an even breath to calm myself down. I tried to distract myself by placing hot kisses on the silky soft skin of her shoulder and neck. A second later though, she bucked up into my fingers obviously impatient that I had stopped in my tracks.

"More," she panted into my ear and I had never been one to deny a lady.

I slid down her body only long enough to divest her of that too allure lower undergarment then slowly made my way back up her body. I stopped at certain points to kiss and caress flushed, trembling flesh before coming to rest beside her. Careful to keep the hook away from her, I leaned on that arm to prevent any mishaps from befalling my Swan underneath me. I found the little nub at the center of her folds with little trouble and gently rubbed circles into it with my thumb. She easily matched the rhythm I set with her hips working in tandem with me. Her breathing steadily became more labored and didn't take long before she was nearly incoherent with need. Just as she tilted her hips in a silent plea for more. I slid one long finger into her depths.

Crying out, Emma threw her head back and thrust against my hand. I had been so focused on her reaction I didn't notice my black leather pants being unlaced until long, slender fingers wrapped around my length and squeezed. I groaned loudly into her neck at the intense and unexpected pleasure. My vision blurred for a second as her hand began to stroke languidly up and down. I bit her shoulder when her thumb skimmed over the head in a determined effort not to reach the end before her.

The added stimulation pushed Emma right over the edge. Her entire body tensed, her lower muscles gripping my finger as her soft cry filled the room. She bucked against my hand a few more times before almost frantically pushing me away. Her reaction alarmed me for a moment until I felt her wrap her legs around my hips and found her reversing our positions. She practically slammed me onto my back against the mattress and pushed my hook into it.

I felt the fiery heat of her as she sheathed me inside her in one graceful motion, arching her back and biting her bottom lip. My breath caught in my lungs against the onslaught of unexpected sensation. He clasped her hips in my hand and met her thrust for thrust. It took every ounce of will power I possessed to ignore the instinct to squeeze my eyes shut so I could watch her as she slowly rode me. I had been completely mesmerized by the sight before me as she popped her hips with every downward thrust that, in turn, elicited a moan or groan in response from me. She was so beautiful with her flushed skin, sleek muscles, and all that gorgeous hair cascading in damp, blonde waves over her shoulders as she let her head fall back. When her eyes closed, my hand went from her hip to her lips and ghosted down the column of her narrow throat in a silent request. She raised her head forward again in answer to my touch and reopened her eyes. Our eyes locked as the slow rhythm our bodies had set continued to play on. If she would let me, I would worship her like that every night for as long as she'd let me.

The pleasure built low in my belly alerting me that I was getting close. I had been about to reach down to her core when she grabbed my hand and placed it over my head. She began to ground harder and the coiling in my belly wound so tightly it was nearly pain. I lost our rhythm with the onslaught and I forgot to breathe. I finally filled my lungs with much needed air when they started to burn. I groaned out when she slammed her hips down once more and she moaned low in her throat, leaned back against bent knees and her inner muscles began squeezing me like a vice as she climaxed for the second time with a soft cry. I gave a silent thanks to whatever gods that my have existed for that small favor then frantically pumped into her twice more. I skewed my eyes closed as I poured myself inside her with a long, low groan.

A heartbeat later, Emma went limp and collapsed onto my chest in a sweaty tangle of limbs and long, damp hair. I held her close and scraped the strands of hair off her cheeks and away from her eyes as best as I could. Pure and unfettered joy bubbled up inside me threatening to spill over. It had been centuries since the last time I felt this content and _whole_.

I felt the tremor for her body and gush of air across my still overheated and sensitive skin. I craned my neck as best as I could in an attempt to see what was wrong when I had finally heard the sound of her chuckle. I then felt her mouth stretch into a contented smile.

"Well, that was...unexpected," she offered after a few minutes and our breathing had begun to return to normal.

"Aye. I think that's putting it mildly, love," I breathed heavily. I looked down as best as I could and saw the feathers spilling from the hole in the mattress my hook had made. "You ruined my mattress."

"Would you rather it had accidentally been me or the damn mattress?" she deadpanned, raising her head sharply and rested her chin on my chest.

"Point taken. You do know bloody well it comes off, though."

"I wasn't exactly that clear headed."

"Good for me that you weren't," I chuckled which earned me a roll of her eyes that only made my grin widen.

"What made you come to find me after so long? I had expected you sooner," she stated softly. I stayed silent for a long moment trying to figure out the best way to answer her.

"I saw some stars in the sky that looked like a swan and a hook facing one another and meeting at the points of the beak and hook. It made me think of you," I murmured as I played with a thin strain of her hair.

"There's a constellation that really looks like that here?"

"I don't know if it was an actual constellation, love, but it looked that way at least," I sighed as I managed to reach over and grabbed the covers then pulled them up over us

"That's weird," she yawned as she laid her head back down on my chest as she snuggled closer into my side. "Stars align just so you would come talk to me and be with me. Something's up with that."

I looked sharply down at the top of her head for a long moment before relaxing back into the pillow. The thought of that stayed with me as I drifted off to slumber with her, holding her tightly to me.


End file.
